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The bronze equestrian statue on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. It survived the Middle Ages only because it was mistaken for Constantine. Had they known it was me — a pagan emperor — they would have melted it down.

I do not think I deserve a statue. I did not perform my duties to be commemorated. I performed them because they were my duties. The Meditations were not written for posterity. They were written to remind myself, each morning, of what I had already decided to be.